Anyone who’s walked past the wonderful sculpture of the fishwife in Puerto de la Cruz is already familiar with the work of Julio Nieto. But pretty though she is, she’s only the conventional tip of the iceberg when it comes to his creations.

Some of his other sculptures are products of a vivid and fantastical imagination that clearly knows no bounds. So it was with childlike delight that we discovered a street exhibition of his work in La Orotava’s plaza when we visited between Christmas and New Year.

I can’t do them justice with mere words, so I’ll let the images speak for themselves.

This one (the hand-stand one) is actually on display at the public library in Santa Cruz http://www.bibliotecaspublicas.es/tenerife/otras3.htm – just saw it there yesterday in fact…really beautiful, the title is “Loco de amor”, loosely translated “head over heels in love” (in this case, heels over head haha…). At the base of the sculpture, the floor is covered with single sheets of paper with cliché love one-liners, at least a hundred…quite a feat.

Saw them in Adeje last summer and they blew my mind. It was the first time I’d heard of Nieto. The setting wasn’t nearly so attractive, on what is a pretty ordinary kind of street, where the cultural center is sited. La Orotava looks much more appropriate…not to mention your photography does them full justice. I loved Icarus especially. They had the same effect on me that a good fantasy movie or book does, a willing suspension of disbelief, and a longing to be in that alternative universe.